Tuesday, August 11, 1998

A strike by Bell Atlantic workers has disrupted phone service for millions of customers on the East Coast. Union leaders representing 73,000 workers ordered the walkout when the current contract expired at midnight Sunday. Workers hit the picket lines in 13 Northeastern states. Union leaders say Bell Atlantic is looking to hire non-union workers and force current employees to work mandatory overtime. In addition, workers accuse Bell Atlantic of reneging on an agreement to grant retirement packages to 13,000 employees. Bell Atlantic provides phone and Internet service to over 40 million people. The company claims the growing demand for service has forced it to hire some non-union workers. The company maintains that any retirement packages that were promised remain in place, although it is likely they will have to be delayed.

Last November environmentalists staging a sit-in protest in Humboldt County, California were subjected to a pepper spray attack by authorities. Local law enforcement officials applied pepper spray directly to the eyes of non-violent protesters who had locked themselves down with chains. They were protesting a deal being negotiated for settlement of the Headwaters Forest issue in California. When videotaped footage of the confrontation was aired on national TV news networks, it created an uproar.

A dozen people have been detained in connection with the embassy bombing in Tanzania and the U.S. offered a $2 million reward today for information about the bombings. Yesterday we looked at the political situation in Kenya and today we are going to focus on Tanzania.

Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan — What price would you pay not to kill another human being? At what point would you commit the offenses allegedly perpetrated by Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was charged Wednesday with desertion and “misbehavior before an enemy?”